EDITORIAL: Computer Science misses the need for digital literacy, N. Carolina legislators announce Medicaid expansion deal, EDITORIAL: Fighting political forces that sever family ties, Special-use to get overhaul: Commissioners, planners take a look, Cape Carteret seeking new police chief one month after hiring New Bern resident for post, How many in North Carolina are awaiting student loan debt relief? TWO TO ENTER GUILTY PLEAS IN ARMORED-CAR ROBBERY - Greensboro News and - Husband and wife Steven and Michelle Chambers, whose conspicuous consumption of a luxury home, a BMW convertible, breast implants and a $600 wooden Indian, among other purchases, helped the FBI solve the crime, were assessed $3.81 million and $4.8 million, respectively. Fourteen defendants were ordered to make restitution payments to Loomis Fargo totaling almost $19 million. More than half of the amount came from the seizure of a luxury home purchased by husband-and-wife defendants during their post-heist spending spree. He angrily hung up the phone at Loomis, Fargo & Co., his soon-to-be former employer in Charlotte, North Carolina. In total, 24 people were convicted and all but one of the accused pleaded guilty. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, or Theres no way to get it back, Butcher told The Charlotte Observer. Thank you! *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]. Kelly Campbell, 29, a former company employee, entered guilty pleas earlier to bank larceny, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder charges. Growing up, David's family went to Disney World, sent him to religious school, and shopped at places he couldn't afford as a self-supporting adult. A connection between each suspect began to emerge slowly, and as the intensity of spending grew, suspicion did as well. He quickly found out when you have money, you just have different problems, Wydra said. RELATED: When you have money, you just have different problems: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later, How I held it together is beyond me, Ghantt said. Only a nickel on every dollar have been collected so far. For people earning $8.15 an hour David's salary the jokes came naturally. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Arrests Made in $17 Mil. N.C. Heist | AP News All but one took plea deals, including Ghantt, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. The figures can be astounding. What that says is, We will never forgive you for what youve done.. Inside $3.3 million was located along with the two stolen surveillance tapes, apparently left due to the robber and his accomplices being sloppy, or in a hurry. The inspiration behind the major motion picture Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Sudeikis! FBI video shows agents searching the Cramer Mountain home and finding stacks of cash. Ghantt was the vault manager and was surrounded. David got a kick out of her. It all went down in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the man at the center of that heist, David Scott Ghantt, now lives in Jacksonville. These weren't the hardest of criminals, and though there was logic to not knowing each other's names, they had derived some of their methods from Hollywood depictions of crime. The unsolved crime mystery of Marilyn Sheppard. In all, they recovered $6.6 million. "Don't back out on us. He deserved better. The biggest restitution numbers for victims of financial crimes generally involve Ponzi schemes or sweepstakes fraud, not cash thefts. And once he started, he didn't stop with one cartful. Punishment needs to be fair and realistic. She had previously been making frequent small deposits to avert suspicion. 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Marine Fisheries Commission advocates for water quality, North Carolina the only state allowing unnecessary killing of sea turtles, 'Pagan' bike gang leader in N. Carolina sentenced to prison, Deputy cleared in shooting death of Gloucester woman, Beaufort amends charter to allow four-year mayoral term. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. Steve's a serious guy.". It took me going to prison to realize I was a bag of worms, and it took me years of work to be somebody worthy to come back into our society, he said. He was on a budget for clothes, even for work boots; he had recently needed to check seven stores before finding a pair in his price range. La vie de David Ghantt n'a rien de compliqu. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: But where will they park? Hed never really been in trouble, he wasnt a career criminal, said retired FBI agent John Wydra. Thirty years! As a child, he had preferred reading to playing sports, and he would say, as an adult, that although he couldn't have told you "who was on first," he knew as a kid who the Egyptian god of the dead was. Then they returned it. In Campbells case, Gronquist says his client was buried in court-ordered debt despite the fact that she took responsibility for what she had done and cooperated with prosecutors and the FBI. How he and his wife had trouble communicating. Jim Gronquist, Campbells defense attorney during the Loomis case, says the financial penalties levied against his client and her co-defendants are grossly excessive and unjust, particularly since most of the stolen Loomis money was actually recovered. The real 'Masterminds' These (Loomis) guys, not so much.. You cannot fine low-income people millions of dollars. The case had gotten national publicity and was the subject of numerous articles, documentaries and even a movie. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a trailer and upgraded to what would today be a multi-million-dollar mansion at Cramer Mountain. The investigation ultimately resulted in the conviction of eight people directly involved, as well as sixteen others who had indirectly helped them. Thank you so much. The bag held his mobile phone and handgun. Another name the FBI had become very interested in is Eric Payne. As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to edit or When Ghantt called Campbell however, the FBI was able to track his location, and arrested him with the help of the Mexican police onMarch 1, 1998. Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. David told Kelly they would have to control themselves and not spend the money too quickly, because the FBI could electronically trace a suspect's recent spending activity through bank papers, credit card records, and land transactions. So the pieces were falling into place for investigators. A more immediate need was securing help to move the stolen money to safety the night of the crime. It was released in 2016 and Wydra was invited to the premiere. 2023 Cox Media Group. The Loomis Fargo heist: 25 years later We went on a mission to calculate exactly how much size-wise the money was, $11.3 million in $20 bills, and it weighed over 2,000 pounds, former FBI agent John Wydra said. Over 88% of the money has been recovered since the heist. Steve began talking about wiring money to overseas accounts, and even purchasing a nightclub. A former FBI agent who helped crack the case sat down with Channel 9 Reporter Glenn Counts to talk about the clues that led to solving the crime, and how the group got caught. >> PHOTOS: The Loomis Fargo heist, 25 years later. A woman by the name of Kelly Campbell had worked there in 1996, and she and Ghantt had become friends in that time. Campbell, a former Loomis employee and one of the original masterminds of the caper, has paid off less than $21,000 of the $4,701,694.18 she was docked. Burks was also ordered to serve 15 years in prison, limiting his ability to balance his books. - Jeffrey Guller, who at 81 is by far the oldest of the Loomis defendants, still owes almost $1.1 million on his original court debt of $1.14 million and will remain on the governments books for another four years. As it neared its end, David stealthily left the vault door ajar. In August 1997, Campbell informed Ghantt about an old high school friend of hers named Steve Chambers, who could assist Ghantt to execute a massive cash robbery of the Loomis Fargo vault in one night. Loomis, Fargo offered a $500,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. He'd already done enough, he realized, to get himself fired and arrested, even if the gate prevented him from moving the money outside the building. Prosecutors say a vault. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. : The $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft. For example, Steve Chambers and his wife were living in a. They had to be extremely careful not to tip off the group, as they could lose potential conspirators or more information important to a conviction. The woman on the phone was Kelly Jane Campbell, and David had a mad crush on her. David said he needed Kelly to drive to Loomis before the theft that night to remove a duffel bag from his parked pickup truck. Campbell used to work for Loomis and continued the friendship with Ghantt, eventually hooking him up with Chambers. Each cart, holding about $2 million, was taking David seven or eight minutes to stack, push, and empty into the van, and there were about eight cartloads' worth in the vault. David would simply empty the vault and deliver the money to the others. Chambers had no intention of wiring any money to Ghantt and intended to have him killed to keep him from implicating the others. Seven Charged In $17M Heist - CBS News Michelle Chambers paid off only $27,000. So we were able to figure out with all the denominations, it would require about 20 safe deposit boxes to store it all.. David's share would be sent to Mexico, where he planned to hide and where he expected Kelly to join him. The FBI heard about the plot and agents knew they could no longer wait. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. The FBI began to question past and current employees of Loomis Fargo. She had attitude. The reason David didn't know Steve's last name was so they couldn't identify each other to the police or FBI, should cops or G-men ever enter the picture. Steve was a serious guy? He couldn't understand the gap, why he wasn't more successful, why he couldn't at least match the financial stability of his father, who earned a comfortable salary driving a truck. remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats If a prank seemed dangerous, David backed out. But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. Well she was a pretty happy-go-lucky person, he said. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Moving the money into the van quickly proved an onerous task. Just after the last employees left that day, surveillance footage shows a man enter the vault, and begin to load more than 2,740 pounds in cash into a nearby van, totaling around over $17 million. He had stayed in a luxury hotel and paid for expensive food and activities such asscuba divingandparasailing. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). But you cant get blood from a stone, Johns said. The unfairness gnawed at him, stirred by Kelly's questions. But what the bank didnt tell Michelle, and Michelle didnt know, was that one of those forms get filled out if you ask about it, or if its close to $10,000 or if they suspect that any part of that transaction is suspicious, Wydra said. 'Can I Keep the Velvet Elvis?': The Great Hillbilly Heist of 1997 Then we went on a mission to calculate exactly how much size-wise the money was, $11.3 million in $20 bills, and it weighed over 2,000 pounds, Wydra said. You can seize property. WOMAN GETS TIME IN LOOMIS HEIST - Greensboro News and Record The Loomis case is another example where the amount of restitution ordered vs. what is actually paid are two dramatically different numbers. Winds light and variable. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Chambers had broached the possibility of a robbery to Campbell earlier in the summer. true story that has captivated American audiences on the news and now on the big screen in the major motion picture, Masterminds. And with Loomis, were looking at only one case. He called Kelly to say he was coming and hopped into the driver's seat of the loaded Loomis van. While Ghantt waited for the heat from the robbery to die down, Chambers would send Ghantt small amounts of money. Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft FILE - Kelly Campbell, one of the 21 people convicted for their involvement in the $17 million Loomis Fargo heist, awaits sentencing for her part in the theft at her mobile home near Mount Holly, N.C. on Aug 16, 1999. The supervisor liked him and gave him the job. In one case, the restitution for a Loomis defendant may be a moving target. By this time, agents knew where he was and had a general idea who the other players were, so they went to every bank in town to see if any of them rented a safe deposit box. Once they were in custody, the overwhelming task of clearing out possessions possibly purchased with the stolen money began. She was five-foot-seven, had dirty-blond hair, and had worked with him for about a year at Loomis Fargo, until she left for another job in 1996. It should have been easy, but for some reason the gate didn't open for him.
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